Carter Breaks His Femur

One night Derek and I headed to a quick dinner with the Thorsteds at R&R in the Riverwoods. We get a call just as we are finishing from Camden on his watch saying Carter is hurt. He is headed over to my office complex to check on him, but he thinks we better come. This was quite shocking to me because we left them with strict instructions to stay home, lock the doors, and no friends. They were just supposed to watch or movie or play computer games. I guess Carter rode his bike to Martha’s, then they rode to the new construction house together, then over to my office to ride down the hills. Carter braked too hard, flew over the handlebars, and landed directed on his knee on the cement. His leg hurt so bad that he could not get up. And Camden called him on his watch so Carter first informed Camden and then Camden had the smarts to call us. We took Carter to instacare and sure enough he had a Salter I fracture along the distal growth plate of the femur. 

 He was given a brace locking his knee at 180 degree and was told to keep weight off it (which was easy) because it hurt too bad to put any weight on it. He got to remain in that brace for about 6 weeks.  The first Sunday after the break Carter was a little stir crazy unable to move at all so we put him in the wagon and wheeled him around the neighborhood.

Camden was such a cute brother and helped him so much those weeks at school. I even found him one day lying on the bed with Carter wearing a sympathy brace of his own.

He and Liv both were always happy to push him where he needed to go to school. I had several weeks of arranging my scheduling so I could both drop Carter and his wheel chair off at school and pick him up. 

The dog was a great support as well especially if food was involved.

 He was able to start walking on it when it no longer hurt, but that took a few weeks. We ended up renting a wheel chair for him to use at school because being able to sit in that and elevate his leg all day was most comfortable. He was quite limited in function for a while and had to have assistance with showers and dressing. But, it is honestly amazing what a great attitude he had through the whole thing, and how quickly kids heal and how resilient they are. 

 He has been out of his brace for about a month now and is mostly back to normal. Still has a little trouble running normally, so we are thinking of doing some physical therapy to get back into running shape.

Chase's Homecoming

Having Chase serve a mission was so so great for my kiddos. They fairly faithfully wrote him emails all through his mission. And they looked forward to each email he wrote weekly. I really appreciate the example he set that I hope my kids will follow. The kids were so excited to be at the airport for his return.

 We held signs that Steph had made and the kids thoroughly mauled him when he finally came out! 

They helped him wheel his suit cases out to his care and insisted on driving with him back to their house from the airport. 

 A couple weeks after he had returned home, he came over and all the kids helped him make real Italian pasta sauce. That was a fun night with Chase and everyone enjoyed the meal.

Back to School

And just like that another summer had passed and all the kids were back to school. Olivia is in 6th grade this year with Mrs. Berger and the boys are in 4th and have Mrs. Rockwood. The day before school started Laura Palmer threw a neighborhood foam party. I came home from work on my lunch break and snapped a pic of what that looks like. 

 The night before school started the boys tatted themselves up at the Watkins house and Liv got her nails painted super fun by Chana Vitelli. 

 Here’s the yearly first day of school pics on the porch. 

 And here are their school pictures this year.

 I think they all turned out awful (Liv with her MTV shirt and side pony, Cam with his silly smile, and Carter with an Alfalfa hair sticking up), but Derek says that is part of school pictures so they can’t retake them.